Dancing shoes?
by ororomunroe531
Summary: Gambit and rogue meet up at a dance bar. Where it goes from there is anyone's guess. Kitty's a Klepto, Mystique and Rogue make up, and there will be a dance club manager named Phil. Romyness. Zen. Life is good. on a side note, i love the Lebeaus.
1. Dancing, food, and fun

Chapter 1 Dancing, food, and fun

Rogue looked up at the flashing neon sign—Dancing, food, and fun. Well, she really wasn't looking for something like that, but going to the library every Tuesday was getting old. She had read practically everything interesting there already, anyway.

Well, what? it was a small library, okay?

It started after she found out that Risty was really Mystique. Tuesday nights she used to go over to Risty's to hang out with her best friend and to get away from dumb-assed teenager drama that was always beholden to the mansion. But then her power-freakout happened and 'Risty'—and Risty's house—were no longer in the picture. And now that the library had been exhausted, she guessed she should try something different.

_Go me, _she thought sardonically. _Personal growth. _

She supposed the place wasn't too bad. It had the kind of music that she leaned toward playing more often than not. She caught a few lines of a Nine Inch Nails song playing and smirked. _Ah could get used to this place. _

The place looked like it used to be a roller-skating rink, with a wide circular dance floor and snack bar. It was a club right now, but apparently they were looking to hire dance instructors, too. They also had theme nights—Rogue had read about them in their newspaper ad.

A new song started, and rogue felt someone tap her on the shoulder. She turned around to tell whoever it was her usual spiel, and found herself staring into a pair of red-on-black eyes.

"May I have this dance?" he asked with a smirk.

"Ah… When did ya get back up North?" she asked.

"Couple days ago." He took her hand and pulled her to the dance floor. She was a little baffled while flattered at the same time. Since when did anyone at all want to get close enough to her to _dance_ with her? Especially if they had been absorbed by her, not to mention more than once.

Back in Mississippi, rogue loved to go out dancing. She automatically found the beat and moved with it, and with him. When they ended up looking each other in the eye again, she simply asked "Why?"

"Why what, Chere?" Gambit replied. She gave him an I-don't-tolerate-being-bull-shitted glare. He laughed. "Can't I dance with a pretty lady?" he asked.

"Maybe if ya have a death wish, ya can."

"You've absorbed me before an' I'm still alive."

"If ya know how horrible it is, shouldn't ya be afraid ta touch meh?"

"Nonsense. I'm touching your clothes." She rolled her eyes at this. "And if you're so worried 'bout me touchin' you, maybe you should learn to control your powers.

"Yeah, because Ah haven't tried that," she drawled.

"Actually, you haven't."

"Are you _on_ something?"

"The floor. And what you've been doing is fighting your mutation. Trying to beat it down. You should be working _with_ it, not against it."

"How? Just go up to someone and will mahself ta absorb them? And how the hell would ya know what Ah've been doin?" she replied indignantly as they sat at her table after the song ended.

"I used to be employed to stalk the X-Men, remember?"

"Used to? If you're not with Buckethead anymore, then why are ya up north?"

"Guild stuff got too annoying. So now I'm living at the acolyte base again while ignoring Magneto's every request. It's great fun." He smirked. "But back to you. You want my insight?" she nodded warily. "I want you to work on distinguishing your psyches from each other. I know you got lots of people in that pretty little head, and I want you to work on getting to know the distinct feel of each one. Can ya do that for me?"

"Ah guess."

"Good. Then meet me here at the same time next week." He got up and left the club.

X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X

Rogue punched in the security code for the mansion and walked up the driveway and into the kitchen. Reaching for her Coke in the bottom shelf of the refrigerator drawer, she was mostly paying attention to what was going on in her mind.

She guessed that her psyches would try to take over her mind the moment she paid attention to them instead of pushing them back behind the mental wall she had worked so hard with the Professor to build up. Surprisingly, she found that she still had control, although now that the psyches were getting some attention, they were quite talkative. Pretty much all of them refused to be quiet and let her pick one out of the bunch to "get a feel" for them. _SHUT UP! _She thought loudly.

And they did.

And then they started again.

_Like jeez, Rogue, you don't gotta be rude! _Kitty piped up. Kitty was as good as anywhere to start with, so Rogue thought hard and analyzed Kitty's psyche until she knew it well. She had Kitty fade in with the rest of them, but now that she had spent some quality mind-time with Kitty, she could tell her psyche apart from the rest of them. _Maybe the Cajun's ideas do have some merit, _Rogue thought.

She then proceeded to analyze Logan's psyche, and once she had that one down, she started on Kurt's. The real-life counterpart of said psyche popped into the kitchen at that moment, but rogue didn't notice until he waved his hand in front of her face.

"Pretty intense look you vere giving zat soda," he joked. "You should really mentally undress your carbonated beverages in ze privacy of your bedroom, shweister."

"Ha-ha, ya're very amusing," she replied. He proceeded to stand on the counter and go through the topmost cupboards, pulling things out and searching very thoroughly for something. "What're ya doing?" she asked him finally.

"I'm on a Twinkie quest," he replied. "I know Mr. McCoy keeps several boxes stashed somevhere." _Well, here goes nothing, _Rogue thought as she rifled through Hank's psyche.

"Try that little refrigerator he keeps in the Medlab," Rogue said. "Behind the Petri Dishes." She smirked at his baffled expression and walked out of the kitchen.

And straight into Jean.

"Oh, sorreh, Jean."

"That's alright," she said absentmindedly. "I was looking for Hank, and I could've sworn I felt his mind in here a second ago… How odd." Rogue opened her mouth to explain and thought better of it. She just shrugged at Jean and walked on.

She didn't need anyone to know she was trying something new with her powers, as they would probably want to know where she got the idea. She couldn't very well tell them she spent the night dancing with Gambit. No, that wouldn't do at all. Somehow, she had the idea that several people would be none too pleased.

As she was heading up the stairs, she passed Logan. He stopped in his tracks although she kept on walking, and sniffed the air. "Stripes, where in the world were ya tonight? Ya sure as hell don't smell like books."

"Oh, nowhere. Just hitting the town fer a change." He seemed suspicious. Maybe he smelled the Cajun on her? But he walked away anyway.

Rogue went onto the next psyche, and the next, and the next until she knew the feel of all of them in her head.

She went to bed that night wishing it was next week already.


	2. Try a tango?

Chapter 2 Try a tango?

Rogue walked into the club the Tuesday after her encounter with Gambit. The minute she stepped in, she looked back to the table they had been at last week and was disappointed to see two blonde kids.

"Lookin' for somebody?" she heard a smooth drawl behind her.

"Just a no-good swamp rat," she replied as she turned to face the red-on-black eyes. He gave no answer to her taunt, but took her gloved hand and led her to the dance floor. A fast Latin-flavored song started playing and he grabbed her hand and her waist as he pulled her closer to his body.

She immediately fell into his tango, but he added all sorts of random turns and dips and even a lift at the end to spice things up.

"Well, Chere, have y' been practicin', or are y' jus dat full of surprises dat y' can dance, too?" he asked.

"Ya ain't too shabby yerself, Cajun."

They had to make their way through a large crowd of people that they hadn't noticed gathering while they were dancing. The two took a seat at the farthest table from the floor and he looked her up and down.

"See somethang ya like?" she drawled.

"Oui." He winked at her. "But attractions aside, how are you doin' wit de people in y' head?"

"Ah did exactly what ya said. Worked like a charm, too. They're a lot quieter now and Ah don't even need my mental wall anymore".

"M'kay den, what I want y' t' do is get out de Chaton's mind. Ya know, y' brown haired ami." He waited as she did that. "Now, y' concentrate on her powers." She did so. "Close y' eyes." He grabbed her upper arm and yanked it downward.

"Hey!" she opened her eyes and looked down to where her hand was supposed to be. "Oh mah god, Ah'm phasing!" Gambit grinned at her.

"Okay den, what y' do now is try out de powers of five other people y' trust. Ya do that fo' me and meet me in trois days at de Acolyte base, 'kay?" she nodded and got up and left.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

She walked in the door at the mansion, and Logan was waiting there for her.

"Where were you? You smell the same as you did last week. Decidedly non-bookish." He queried.

"The library. Lahke always," she lied.

"Then why do you smell like a club?"

"Ah wanted to do somethin' different."

"Then why not say? Ya don't have to lie to me, Stripes." Rogue felt a rare pang of guilt at that. She wasn't about to tell him, or anyone, about Gambit.

"Sorreh, Logan," she mumbled as she walked up the stairs.

After she turned the corner, she decided she was too tired to actually walk to her room. So, repeating the process she had used on kitty's psyche, She brought up Kurt's and 'ported to her room.

_Trippy, _she thought as she fell into bed.

XxXxXxXxX

"Hey, has anyone, like, seen rogue?" kitty asked that Wednesday morning at breakfast. Rogue, in fact was in the woods behind the mansion. She decided she wanted to try out someone else's powers before school, and figured that the woods were the best place to be alone.

Who's powers to use, though? That was the question. She decided that Logan's enhanced senses were a nice and non-destructive place to start.

Well, she was wrong.

As soon as she had Logan's powers on, his enhanced senses took control of her. The sounds of the bird and the animals in the bushes were so loud! The scents were the worst, though. She could smell all the animals that were there, the ones who had been there recently, and even a group of the students that must have been out there a couple days ago for a training session. The worst was the bear and the mountain lion that she caught wind of. Logan's animalistic nature immediately took over her mind, and she fell into a crouch and started growling. Three bone claws popped out of each hand.

"Holy crap!"

Rogue stood up and stared at her new claws.

"WHAT. WHAT?" Rogue was in shock. "Okay… so Ah can manifest physical mutations. Now, how do they go back IN?"

She tried tensing her fingers. She rotated her wrist a couple times. She was only getting more worried and frustrated, and Logan's temper on top of her already short one wasn't helping anything.

She yelled and stabbed a tree.

"Well, that was productive," she said as she assessed the damage to the tree. Well, at least it had cleared her mind. "Damn, Ah need a smoke."

Slashing the tree hadn't been the way to get the claws back into her arms, but it HAD cleared her mind enough to figure out what se needed to do. She brought up Jean's psyche and contacted Logan telepathically.

_Hey, Logan? _She asked as she linked to what seemed to be his mind.

_Stripes? Since when are you a telepath? _He asked.

_Never mind that. Ah'll explain if ya just come out here and help me, _she said. And without meaning to, she sent a mental image of six bone claws popped out of her gloved hands.

_Shit! Stripes! _

_Just come OUT here, already! Ah can't get them back in!_

"How the hell do ya have 'em at all?" Logan asked as he came up behind her. She spun around, startled. He got a real good look at them. "Cripes, kid! Start explainin'!"

"Help meh first!" she half-demanded, half-begged.

"Fine. Tense this muscle," he said, pointing to the middle of her forearm. "Good, now relax it." She did so, and to her great relief, the claws SNIKTed back into her arms. He looked at her expectantly.

"Um, Ah…" _what the hell am I supposed to say? I sure as hell can't mention Remy! _"Ah'm tryin' out some new stuff, recalling powers that Ah've absorbed. Ah just didn't know I could recall physical mutations until just now."

"Does Chuck know about this?" he asked her warily.

"NO!" she lowered her voice at the suspicious look he gave her. "No. And please, don't tell anyone. Ah… Ah just—Ah wanna surprise everyone!" she came up with an answer on the spot. He didn't drop the suspicious look. "Please, Logan?"

"Fine," he grunted. "But you WILL tell 'em, right? At some point?"

"'Course, Ah will." He nodded and turned to go back inside.

"Oh, and you're late fer school," he threw over his shoulder.

"Damn!"

_No more before-school experimenting fer me, _she thought as she ran inside.


	3. Wednesday

**Dancing shoes? Chapter three: Wednesday**

Rogue walked along the main road of Bayville, cursing herself for not keeping track of the time.

Ah hate bein' late ta school, everyone looks up at ya when ya walk in. As if I'm not stared at enough for bein' a goth, and a mutant at that. Ugh.

She stopped as she looked down the side street to the Brotherhood boardinghouse.

_Hn. Could just skip…_ Rogue shook her head and started walking toward Bayville High again.

"Ugh… Can't believe Ah'm gonna do this, that Cajun has gotten ta me, Ah know it," she muttered to herself as she crossed the street and headed for her old home. "At least they don't care when Ah smoke."

She walked up the front steps and waltzed right in, dropping her bag next to the door. _Honey, Ah'm home, _She thought with a chuckle.

The only ones who would be up at this hour would be Lance, who had been going to school again since they had gotten a new principal; and Pietro, but who really knew where he would be? It was usually a different routine every morning for that boy, he got bored far too easily for anything else.

"Hello, Rogue," She heard a tired voice call from the sofa. She walked past the hallway and peered into the living room to find Wanda, the gothic mutant obviously having slept on the couch and woken up from the sound of the door hitting the inside of the hallway. Wanda sat up and Rogue heard someone yelp.

"Oi, sheila, ya do know that ya were sittin' on me misters, don' ya?" An Aussie accent whimpered out from under Wanda. Wanda rolled her eyes and Rogue smirked and leaned against the wall.

"Hiya Wanda, John." Rogue knew the somewhat insane mutant from fond and not so fond memories of Remy's. Pyro's mop of orange hair shot up, and soon afterward, his face.

"When'd you get here? Wanda, when'd the stripey-haired sheila get here?"

"Just now, obviously," she said as she stood up and adjusted her tank-top strap back onto her shoulder. "And close the door, would you?" Rogue complied and looked back at John.

John stood up from the couch in a pair of jean cutoffs and nothing else, and proceeded to look around the room for something. Rogue ignored him and walked the rest of the way in, following Wanda to the kitchen.

"Ah hope Lance still keeps a good stash of coffee," Rogue muttered.

"If he didn't, I'm pretty sure John would," Wanda replied as she started loading said coffee into the large coffee pot.

"Does Pyro live here now or somethin'?" Rogue asked.

"No, 'm just a booty call," he replied cheerfully, cutting off Wanda. "A rather repetitive one at that…Have either of you sheilas seen my shirt?" he pouted.

Rogue wordlessly pointed to the ceiling. He looked up and sure enough, there was his bright orange t-shirt with long red sleeves, hanging from the fan.

"Thanks, mate," he smiled at her.

"So… what brings you here anyway, oh wondrous X-Man?" Wanda inquired with a smirk.

"Late fer school decided not to go at all. Figured this was the best place ta hang out and do nothin' an' not get ragged on," she finished.

"Don't count on it," Wanda said.

"Why?" Rogue's brow furrowed. "Did any of the boys suddenly develop poles up their asses?"

"No. Blue Bitch is back." Wanda was distracted for a moment as she rolled her eyes at John trying to jump to get his shirt from the fan, but failing, quite miserably, in fact. The ceilings were simply too high.

"For the love of the land, John. Just ask for help, moron," Wanda said as she hexed the fan to get the shirt down. John pouted.

"Oi was gonna get it, luv!" Wanda rolled her eyes at the name, but obviously used to it, she didn't correct him. "Just put it on before I hex _you _down a few pegs." He hurriedly put his shirt on.

"WHAT about HER?" Rogue gasped, finally remembering her vocal cords.

"Your mom. She survived it." Wanda replied absentmindedly, watching John stretch the cricks out of his aching muscles.

"THAT'S WHAT _SHE_ SAID!" John piped up suddenly.

"And there _that _moment went," Wanda mused under her breath. Rogue was getting more… irritated? Flustered? Whatever, some kind of unpleasant emotion… With every moment.

"Come ON Wands! Tell meh what's goin' on with Mystique!"

"Jeez, testy," Wanda muttered as she poured a freshly made cup of coffee. "Not a morning person I take it."

"GAH! Has anyone ever told ya that you're impossible?" Rogue exclaimed at the black-haired girl.

"Hm, yes. My father, Mystique, my brother, Toad, John, my five previous tutors…"

"AH DIDN' MEAN IT LITERALLY, GODDAMMIT!"

"HEY!" a female voice yelled from up the stairs. "WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU ALL ABOUT WAKING ME UP?"

"Like mother like daughter," Wanda smirked. Rogue just gave her a halfhearted glare.

Mystique walked into the kitchen, and had spotted John before Rogue. "Wanda! He's at least supposed to go home at night, I've TOLD you that!" Mystique sounded just about at her wit's end. She looked up at Wanda. "You KNOW he burns things when he wakes up!"

"That's why we slept on the couch. And before you ask, no. You don't have to dispose of the couch. It's perfectly clean, we kept it PG-13." Wanda informed the blue-skinned woman.

"In there, anyway," John added under his breath with a snicker. Then Mystique's eyes fixed on rogue's form, and whatever she was going to say had died on her lips.

"Rogue?" she whispered.

"Hey, Mama."

"Oi, when did ya start callin' 'er that again?"

"I kinda let go o' mah grudge aftah Ah pushed her off that cliff. Figured we were even."

Mystique's features changed from shocked to confused. "Why aren't you in school?" she asked.

"And, there's the pole," John informed her smugly. Mystique just fixed the mutant firebug with a glare.

"Don't you have something to do?" the terrorist asked him pointedly.

"No, not really."

"Then go _find _something," she growled.

"Neh. I'm good 'ere," he said even as Wanda herself left the room. Mystique could be kinda freaky sometimes, and it was too early in the morning for Wanda to be bothered with any kind of arguing above the bickering she and Rogue had exchanged earlier.

"NOW! OR I'LL BODILY THROW YOU OUT OF MY HOME!" Raven shouted at him. He just grinned smugly.

"Aww, Blue, you know I'm fine with any bodily thing ya'd like to do to me, mate, but you'll 'ave to take it up with Wanda first. I am _her _toy, ya know."

"Johnny," Rogue started, already starting on a migraine from her mother's screeching, wanted him to leave. "Do ya really want me to inform Buckethead about who played with his chemicals and created super-ants? Don't thin Ah won't. Ya know Ah will, Remy must talk about me enough."

"Oi, ya spoil all my fun mate!" John bemoaned as he headed toward the door.

"Yeah, and don't forget it!" Rogue said as she shut the door behind him.

"Well, your temper has improved," Mystique said dryly.

"Ah can attribute that ta the fact that it jus' broke mah heart ta see little Jamie with those puppy-dog eyes o' his aftah ya yelled at him."

"Anna," Raven started as her features softened. "We… Can we talk?"

"Yeah, Mama."

XxXxXxXxX

Kitty had an internal dilemma going on at lunch. It was so shiny, she NEEDED the beautiful shiny… But NO! She had to be strong. She didn't need the shiny. _I don't need it. I don't need it. I don't need it. I don't… I NEED IT I NEED THE SHINY! _Kitty looked around one last time to make sure she was alone in the classroom, and then she quickly grabbed the small, embossed metal globe off her history teacher's desk, and ran out of the class with it under her shirt.

She ran all the way to her locker, on the other side of the school, and stashed it in the corner of the little shelf, buried under some papers.

_Oh my gosh, God like, hates me and I'm going to hell. _She let out a frustrated sigh at the thought._ But it's so pretty and shiny! _She grinned as she shut her locker, completely forgetting her guilty feelings.

_God would be happy that I'm confident enough to be able to get pretty and shiny things for myself! _The Jewish valley girl thought as she stood at the end of the lunch line. _In fact, he wants me to have pretty and shiny things! Otherwise, why would I have the mutation I have? _She thought absently about the small trove of beautiful, shiny things she had phased between the walls at the head of her bed. And now she had a new one to add! The little, palm-sized, globe would look perfect in between that $25 antique spoon she had stolen from the Bayville Curiosity Shop, and the crystal perfume bottle she had stolen off of Jean's dresser. Well, what? She had been in there to help the tall redhead pick out a dress for her date with Scott.

_Yep. I'm Definitely going to hell, _she thought with a sigh at the end of lunch_. I hope there are shiny things in hell._

XxXxXxXxX

Kurt prowled around the schoolgrounds after school.

_Vhere is she? _The fuzzy mutant was exasperated beyond all belief. It had been at least six whole MONTHS since Rogue had skipped school, and in all fairness, that one wasn't even her fault. It was that dirtbag Cajun's fault the last time…

Gambit! What if… what if she was with him? What if he had taken her against her will?

"Mein Gott!" he sighed. He decided that he should go off and look for her if she didn't show up in five minutes. Although he had given her longer than 10 minutes to get back to school in the earlier days when she was skipping… Their arrangement had been that if he didn't see her in class that day, he would hang around after the end of the school day for 45 minutes until he should get worried and call the others. But, except for the one time when she was actually in New Orleans, she had always made it within twenty minutes or so…

5 minutes passed… which made the time count 15.

5 more… 20.

5 more… 25.

5 more… 30.

5 more… 35.

5 more… 40.

5 more… That was it! That was the allotted 45 minutes! _Oh, mein gott en heiben! Mein schwiester has been kidnapped again. Again!_

Kurt pulled out his communicator and was about to contact the X-Men, when he saw kitty leave the building with a kind of giddy madness about her, and got sidetracked watching the tiny girl walk away. He almost dropped his communicator, but luckily caught it with his tail, which is what spurred him back into action. He pressed the button that broadcasted to the other active communicators.

"Rogue is missing! I am at Ze School, and Rogue has not showed up prior to our ditching agreement! I think she is in trouble, she didn't answer her cell phone or her communicator when I tried zem, please, someone, help me find mein schwiester! Nightcrawler out!" he then let go of the button so that the others could speak if they needed to.

Cyclops' steady voice came through the communicator, "Kurt, 'port back to the mansion. We'll get Professor Xavier to try and contact her through Cerebro. You never know, she could still be in Bayville."

Kurt nodded at the Communicator, and realizing that Scott couldn't see him, pressed the button to talk.

"I'll be right zere!" and he 'ported to the halfway point from school to the mansion, (a telephone booth) and from there to the mansion.

_**My X-Men, **_Xavier's voice came through their minds. _**Please suit up and head for the brotherhood boardinghouse, it's where Rogue is. **_

XxXxXxXxX

"Mama!" rogue exclaimed and laughed over something Raven had said.

"Well, you were! You were the brattiest little kid I swear I had ever met! Utterly spoiled." Mystique and her had spent the whole day recalling events from the past, and just generally enjoying each other's company. Pietro had come in on one of the times they were laughing hysterically about a shared memory, and had wondered aloud if he had walked into the Twilight Zone.

What with Mystique's asking for forgiveness, and Rogue finally granting it, (albeit over the fact that she had to push her mother off a cliff first) the two seemed to have become best buddies… Toad pretty much summed up how most of them felt when he woke up in the after noon with a simple, "What the hell, yo?" as he walked back upstairs to go back to bed.

Freddy had also woken up, and commented on how pretty she was when she laughed. Rogue was almost startled at the idea that she was in fact, laughing, and had been most of the day.

"Jesus, it realleh is the Twilight Zone," she had muttered, to which Raven had grinned. The blue-toned woman had been about to reply when there was a loud sound front the front of the house. They rushed out of the den to find all the X-Men (except Kitty, who didn't get the memo since she her communicator had been turned off and she hadn't been at the mansion,) suited up and ready for battle. It was at that point that Rogue thought to check her watch. _Oh, shiiiitt…_

"My door! Do you know how many times I've had to fix that thing? Do you have any idea how expensive fixing that kind of door is?" Mystique had yelled at Scott, who seemed a bit baffled about THIS response from the terrorist.

"Don' worry, Mama, Ah'm bettin' that the Prof'll be happy to pay for it to be fixed… And in the unlikely event that he won't, we'll jus' make Scott pay for it, what with him bein' the one to knock it down."

"MAMA?" Kurt demanded. "So, you vere fine zis WHOLE TIME! Not even bothering to keep you phone or comm. unit on!" he the proceeded to rant in German that was so fast that even Mystique, who was fluent in the language, didn't know what he was saying.

"KURT!" Rogue finally shouted over the German mutant's hysteria, "Ah forgot to check the tahme, that's all. It was a mistake. Ah was… Catchin' up with someone. Ya of all people can understand that," she implored him.

Pietro chose that moment to appear, leaning an arm against Scott's too-tall shoulder as if he owned the guy.

",itwassoweird!Asinlikemorethani'veeverseenherlaughsincei'veknownher."

"'Tro… did ya sneak a cup of coffee?" Rogue drawled. "'Cuz Ah doubt that anyone in this room understood a single word you just said."

Pietro huffed out a breath, and repeated what he said a tiny bit slower than before. "I _said, _Yeah you all should have seen her laughing, it was so weird! As in like more than I've ever seen her laugh since I've known her. Yeesh,thattookFOREVER."

They all eyed him for a long moment, and then went about ignoring him. To which he pouted.

Logan stepped in from the porch and gave a curt nod to Raven. She in turn ignored him. Rogue elbowed her in the stomach. Raven sneered at Logan, and the greeting was left at that.

_When did Wednesdays become this complicated? _Why couldn't it be next Tuesday already, when she would meet up with gambit and escape her crazy surrogate family and her equally as crazy, yet much smaller, actual family?

_Oh. Yeah. Ah still need to try out two more powers… Hmm… How about Mama's? _Rogue was now eager to try out the shape-shifting mutant's powers, seeing as how it would be under her own will, and a lot better circumstances this time. She looked at everyone just looking at each other, and just walked out and down the porch steps.

"Bye, Mama. Ah'll call ya."

And with that, all the X-Men seemed to burst from their reveries and they all followed her. Scott was , of course, the last out, and favored her with an uncertain nod. She smiled back at him.

Not even an unsettling one like he would have expected from the woman, it seemed like she was genuinely happy. And that, for some reason, was even more unsettling that a creepy smile. He shuddered after he shut the door to the boardinghouse, which he tried to cover up by switching out his visor for his glasses. Rogue caught it anyway.

_Jus' another Wednesday, _she mused. _Although I favor Tuesdays. _

She grinned.


	4. Friggin' Five in the Friggin' Morning

Dancing Shoes chapter 4: Iiiit's FRIDAY!

"_Meet me in trois days at de Acolyte base," _he had said. That was on Tuesday. It was now Friday. It was now three days after Tuesday. It was five friggin o' clock in the friggin early friggin morning, as Rogue would put it. But nonetheless, it was Friday.

"Why the hell did ya wake meh up at this friggin ungodly hour?" Rogue asked Logan through her coffee. Not that she wasn't excited about the fact that it was Friday, but… It was five friggin o' clock on Friday.

"Maybe I have a sadistic streak."

"Well, Ah never would have seen that comin'. Ah mean, ya hold Danger room sessions on Monday at the satanic hour of six a.m., but who would ever accuse ya of bein' sadistic? Certainly not Ah." Logan shrugged. Rogue took another scalding gulp of coffee. "But seriously. Why?"

"I was bored."

"Do ya even get bored?"

"Apparently so."

"Man, you are sadistic. Remind meh to never let you in the same room as Toad."

"And why's that?" he asked, perplexed.

"He must be a masochist. Ah mean, he does hit on Wanda all the tahme. And let's just say… Sadist? Masochist? Same room? Ah don't want ta even think about it going there. Especially not with mah quasi-dad-figure and mah revolting former teammate. Gay, pedophilic S&M sex."

Logan looked at her over the table, just sipping her coffee as if this discussion were totally normal. He wordlessly got up and dumped the plate full of food he had been eating up to this point in the garbage. He came back to the breakfast nook and sat back down.

"Lose ya appetite?" she inquired.

"I think _you're _the sadist at this table, Stripes."

"Sadist? No. Grudge holder? Yes. That was for wakin' meh up at five. Ah'm not even supposed to know that things exist at this hour."

"I wake you up at five every Monday!" He exclaimed.

"Yeah, but today is not Monday." She slurped down the last of her coffee and got up to get more. The dynamic duo walked in.

"Hey Slim. Red," Logan greeted.

"Good morning Logan," they answered in unison. Rogue snorted with laughter, and they noticed her presence in the kitchen. While she gracefully proceeded to try and get boiling hot coffee off her nose.

_And that's what I get for bein' awake at five. _

"Wow, Rogue, you're up early." Scott said.

"Not of mah accord, believe meh."

"Logan?" Jean asked with concern. "You look a little, um, green. Are you okay?" Rogue laughed again, spraying hot coffee out her nose.

"OW! SONOFABITCH! That is fuckin' hot!" Rogue said this a muffled, as she was holding her poor, burning nose. Logan started laughing. Scott looked worried.

"Are you okay, Rogue?" he asked.

"Yeah, Slim, Ah'm fine. All ah did was spray scalding hot liquid out of my nostrils. Other than that, peachy." Due to her sarcastic response, Scott decided she was going to be fine and got out a bagel to put in the toaster. Logan however was still laughing.

"Jeez Logan! This isn't funny!" Jean insisted. "What if she had really been hurt by that coffee?"

"It's called karma, kid," he said, directing his response more at rogue than the tall redhead. He hadn't forgotten about that S&M comment. Apparently, neither had Rogue.

"Would it be up the butt, Logan?" Rogue demanded angrily. "Or would you want to get your mouth on that slimy, green co—"

"HEY!" he said. Now it was Scott and Jean who looked green. And confused. Probably better that they didn't know why this was the discussion.

"Payback's a bitch, bitch," she said to Logan.

"Who's yelling down here?" Bobby asked groggily as he walked into the kitchen in his Mr. Freeze pajamas. (1)

"Stripes. She sprayed coffee out her nose." Bobby gave a confused look at rogue and went about getting a bowl of Lucky Charms for himself. "And it was hilarious." Rogue glared at him. Surprisingly, so did Jean.

"Yeah. You just wait, Logan." Rogue said as she walked out of the kitchen.

XxXxXxXxX

_Math. Oh, wonderful, lovely, exciting math. Beautiful algebra. How I would love to set you on fire. Calculus? May I help you? To something sharp, preferably, _Rogue thought as she leaned back in her chair. She put her feet up on her desk and pulled out her book, and iPod. And pointedly ignored the glare the Student Aid was giving her. Her thoughts went off on a tangent.

_I'm meeting the Cajun today. I still need to try out one more person's powers. _At that point, Rogue made a decision. She put her iPod and book in her backpack, zipped it up, and stood up.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" the teacher asked her.

"Leaving," Rogue replied. Kurt looked at her in amazement.

"Even after all the trouble you got in vith Lgoan at ze institute for skipping ze other day?" he asked her incredulously.

"Yep." She walked out the door.

"Vell, at least zis time I know she hasn't been kidnapped," Kurt said to himself.

XxXxXxXxX

_How about Buckethead's powers? _Rogue thought to herself outside the school. Bringing up Magneto's psyche, she accessed his powers. It amazed her how easy it was to do this now that she had had some practice with it. She lifted herself up into the air using molecules she had magnetized as a kind of solid platform for her to stand on. She flew high up into the air, just enough that people wouldn't be able to tell what she was if they looked up at her.

She then flew to the Acolyte base on the other side of town. At the door, she decided to just walk in instead of knocking. She walked into the large warehouse, and spotted the door in the other end. Smiling to herself, she crossed the box-filled room and opened it to find the residence part of the base. There were coathooks along the wall at the door, and she hung up her backpack. As she stepped out of the entry hall, she came upon a strange sight.

Magneto in his pajamas sitting at the kitchen table, reading the paper and drinking coffee. She thanked god for the fact that the man was wearing long sleeves and pants. Hooray for conservative old people. She snickered and he looked up.

"Rogue?" he asked, confused. She had to fight a snicker, it was just too funny seeing the master of magnetism looking all baffled and wearing pajamas. It was all so cozy and awkward.

"That's mah name. Well, no it's not, but ya get the idea."

"Indeed. Why… er, to what do I owe the pleasure?" At that moment Gambit walked in wearing nothing but a pair of red pajama pants.

"Chere?" he looked at me. He looked at the clock mounted on the kitchen wall. "Ain't ya a bit early?"

"Is that a problem?" she asked him.

"Non, not at all."

"But, aren't you supposed to be in school?" Magneto asked.

"Have ya ever known meh ta be the kinda girl who did what she was supposed ta do?" Magneto shrugged and went back to his paper as rogue flopped down in the chair across from him. "What's fer lunch, Cajun?"

"Coffee," he said as he sat down with said beverage. Rogue took it out of his hands as he put the cup to his lips.

"Cool, thanks," she said as he glared at her.

"_Chienne_." (bitch)

"_Oui!" _she replied cheerily.

"_Vous parlez français_?" he asked. "_Ou tout simplement des gros mots_?" (You speak French? Or just the dirty words?")

"Whole language," she replied. "When you, er, helped me get a vacation," Magneto smirked at that. "Ah got annoyed with not understandin' half the things people said down in N'Awlins. So Ah took some classes when Ah got back up here." He took his coffee back and slugged down the other half of it that she left him.

"Yo' ever plannin' on goin' back dere?" he asked her as he put his (read: their) cup in the sink.

"Ah think it would be fun, but Ah don't have any plans made up, if that's what ya askin.'"

"Yo' wanna come down wit' moi an' visit mon famille at christmas?" Rogue thought for a second.

"Sure," she shrugged.

"Wait," Magneto said. "You would just go on a most likely week-long trip with him without even thinking about it?"

"Did Ah ask you what you thought?" she replied.

"Chere, play nice."

She glared at him.

"Fine. Yes, Ah would. Ah'm kinda reckless if ya haven't noticed."

At this point, John and Colossus walked in, also in their PJ's. Colossus walked right back out as soon as he saw her.

"Sheila!" John exclaimed. "When did you get 'ere?"

"Ah dunno. Fifteen minutes ago, maybe."

"Well, I'm gonna make ya a Spamwich!" he said cheerily.

"A what?" she asked. She was ignores, though, as Pyro was happily rifling through the cupboards muttering something about Vegemite. Colossus walked back into the kitchen dressed in normal clothes.

"Hey Tin Man," she greeted. He nodded his head at her and went to make himself some tea and toast. About five minutes later John placed what looked like a toasted sandwich in front of her.

"Fried Spam, Vegemite, and lettuce on toasted sourdough," he said with a smile. _Well, that sounds revolting. _She took a bite.

"Wow… That's actually really good," Rogue said.

"Are yo' crazy, Chere?"

"Well yeah. Ah'm actually kinda pleased that it took ya this long to figure that out, too. Maybe Ah should be an actress."

He rolled his eyes at her.

XxXxXxXxX

Later, Rogue and Gambit were in his room. Actually, it was a lot later. To be precise, it was five o' clock. Seriously, she had been there for like six hours. Frankly, Rogue was surprised that Logan wasn't there busting down some doors.

Anyway, gambit had instructed her to sit on the floor, and he was as well.

"Leech," he said.

"Um, run that by me again?"

"The kid, the one you absorbed that negates mutant powers."

"What about him?"

"Turn his powers on." She did so, and Gambit could tell by the fact that everything looked more dull, and darker.

"Remy! Ya eyes!" she said. "They're blue! On white!"

"Oui. Now, invert his powers."

"What?"

"Use dem on yo'self, Chere. Right now you usin' de power on moi, so use it on yo'."

Rogue wasn't used to using these powers, but after a few tries something happened. Remy's eyes returned to their usual red-on-black state, and her skin felt almost… dull. She then realized that her power must make her skin have a kind of vibrating, tingly feeling. While she was looking down at her arm through the mesh shirt wondering about the sudden absence of her apparent tingle, Remy was beaming.

"Hey, Remy, Ah guess Ah didn't notice it 'til it left, but mah powers make mah skin tingle."

"Chere?"

"Huh?" she looked up at him.

"What d' yo' t'ink it means dat yo' skin ain't tingly?"

Rogue processed that and her face lit up.

"Shit!"

"Oui, I know!"

Rogue didn't know what came over her, but in that moment she lunged at Remy, effectively knocking him to he floor. She looked down into his eyes, both of the grinning like idiots. She pressed her mouth to his and was delighted, and maybe even giddy, at the sensation. Or lack thereof, depending on your viewpoint.

_Ah can touch! Ah can KISS! Ah AM kissin'! Ah'm kissin' GAMBIT! _She sat up, still straddling him, and yanked his shirt up off and over his head. He grinned up at her, and slid her gloves off. She took off he mesh overshirt and went right back to making ou with him.

Whe she came up for air again, she blurted out what she thought without realizing she was saying it out loud.

"Ah love you, Remy LeBeau!"

"Je t'aime aussi, mon Chere," he said softly.

Rogue's eyes got wide and the smile fell off her mouth as she registered what had just taken place.

"Ya do?" She was utterly stunned. He just smiled and pulled her back down for a tender kiss.

"Oui," he whispered in her ear in a way that sent shivers down her spine. "Stay with me tonight," he asked. She debated for a minute. "We don' gotta do anyt'ing at all Chere, I jus' wanna hold y' in my arms. I've wanted t' ever since y' left me all on my lonesome in N'Awlins a while back."

"Sure, Remy. We can do that." He grinned almost deliriously at her and hugged her close to his chest.

John opened the door unannounced and was about to ask who was making dinner, but what he saw stopped him in his tracks. There was Gambit, half naked, with the Sheila straddling him. She was not wearing her mesh over that tank top and she was leaning over and hugging Remy. Gambit demonstrated his non-dead-ness by moving his head up from her shoulder to her mouth and kissing her.

"That's it!" he shouted, adequately scaring the shit out of them both. "Oy, mates, I'm gonna order out! We gotta celebrate whatever the fuck it is that's lettin' her do that!" and with that john slammed the door. They could hear him stomping down the stairs and yelling something about pizza.

"Cat's out of de bag den, I s'pose," Remy said.

"He better not get anchovies on that pizza."

Remy just laughed.

XxXxXxXxX

_Hmm. I really like the pink one… it's like, got sequins all over it! Oh my gosh, I like, need that! _Kitty thought as she looked at the headbands at Claire's. The tiny brunette casually picked up two of them, and phased one her backpack. She pretended to check the price, and put back the remaining one. _Like oh my gosh! It's shiny AND pink! This one's going in the best spot inside my 'stolen wall!' I can't believe I already have, like, twenty things in there! I'm gonna have to start hiding stuff in the floorboards… _

Kitty walked out of the store and toward the food court in the mall. She was so happy! Maybe stealing was bad, sure, but… Now she had a PINK shiny thing! She giggled madly as she walked out of the mall and started for home.

_I wonder if Tabitha has any shiny things?_

XxXxXxXxX

Yet again, it was FIVE O' CLOCK in the FRIGGIN MORNING. This time though, it was not an anger-prone, short, and hairy mutant that woke her, it was her phone. She disentangled herself from Remy's limbs and walked over to his dresser to get her phone.

"Chere?" Remy said groggily, feeling around the bed for her and finally opening his eyes when he realized she wasn't in it.

"It's Kitty," she said as she opened her phone. "H'lo?" she answered.

"Like, WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?" kitty yelled into the phone. Rogue recoiled from the small silver object she held. Remy winced in sympathy for her, that thing had been right up to her earand he had heard what Kitty said all too clearly, from across the room.

"Out," Rogue answered into the mouthpiece.

"No effin' duh," Kitty answered. "I like, covered for you last night. But I haven't gone downstairs yet and I know I like, won't be able to cover again. By now Wolverine will obviously know that you scent is missing from the mansion. GET YOUR BEHIND BACK HERE FROM WHERE EVER THE HELL YOU ARE!"

Rogue was once again holding the phone away from her ear. She could tell Kitty was seriously pissed, as it was usually a stretch for her to say 'crap,' let alone scream 'hell' from the top of her lungs. Twice. In two minutes.

"Okay Kit, okay! Ah can be there right quick. Jus' calm down."

Wrong thing to say. Wroooong thing.

"CALM. DOWN. YOU WANT ME TO CALM DOWN! I HAVE BEEN AWAKE LITERALLY ALL NIGHT WAITING FOR YOU TO GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE AND YOU WANT ME TO CALM DOWN! ROGUE, YOU WERE KIDNAPPED LIKE FIVE MONTHS AGO AND THEN YOU PULL A STUNT LIKE FOUR DAYS AGO THAT WAS OUT OF CHARACTER AND NOW YOU DON'T SHOW UP ALL NIGHT AND YOU WANT ME TO CALM DOWN!"

No. Kitty was not pissed. She was bloody furious. As in that whole rant was shouted at the top of her lungs, and she had said ass, and she had said the whole thing so fast that Pietro would be proud of her.

"Okay, okay!" rogue said into the phone and hung up as quickly as she could. Remy was wide awake and wide eyed by now.

"Oh, mah gawd," she said. "Kitteh is going to suffocate me in mah sleep."

"Yo' wan' me t' drive yo' home Chere?"

"No. Ah'm gonna 'port there."

Rogue gathered up all of her stuff and leaned over to kiss him.

"Ah'll meet ya at the dance club Tuesday."

He nodded and she hoisted her backpack up to her shoulder.

XxXxXxXxX

It had taken her five teleportations to get from Remy's room to the Institute gate, but she had done it. Surprisingly, she could see kitty on the porch waiting for her.

_Oh, this is swell._

TBC…

AN/ Yeah. That bit of Romy fluff right before John bursts into the room was so Romy cliché that I am still facepalming. Shut up.

Anyway, PLEASE REVIEW. Please. Reviews and coffee are my blood. And I've been substituting the review part of my blood for more coffee, and lemme tell ya, that just doesn't work. It makes me all jittery.

And as for kitty kind of overreacting, well, she's feeling a bit guilty over her shiny happy-stash, so her emotions are going to be out of whack for pretty much this whole fic. Whether she's swingin' happy, angry, depressive, or outright crazy, she'll be moody lol.

-Zandra

(1) Mr. Freeze was a villain Batman fought. I hope that the irony was not lost on you.


	5. Mehoo Exactlywhat

AN/ Spoiler alert! If you haven't seen the move 'The Lake House' and you are planning on watching it, (Which is weird, cuz it's old in the sense of movies.) don't read kitty's solo part in this chapter. I give away the ending. So if you read it anyway and get pissed off 'cuz I ruined the movie, don't flame me. On with the show!

XxXxXxXxX

Rogue walked through the gates and trudged slowly toward Kitty. The way the small girl had blown up at her on the phone, Rogue was almost scared that if she got too close, Kitty would attack her with her shoe.

Kitty tended to wear very pointy heels.

"Hey, Kit…"

"Oh my gosh, Rogue, I am like so sorry I yelled at you!" Kitty flung herself on Rogue in a rib-crushing hug. Rogue patted her short friend on the back awkwardly.

"That's… fahne, kit… air…"

Kitty released her.

"Sooo… where were you!"

"Nowhere. Or… well ah was somewhere, but nowhere ya need ta know about…"

Logan stepped through the doorway.

"I might like ta know where ya been sneakin' off to, Stripes." The feral man glared at her. "Danger Room! Now!"

"Logaaan…" Rogue whined. "Ah just got up! And Ah'm really tired, we stayed up really late…"

"We who?"

"Mehoo. Exactlywhat," Kitty said. Rogue and Logan just stared at her. "What, am I the only one that appreciates Shel Silverstien?"

"Yes, Half-Pint, you are. Now go do something."

"Wow, Mr. Logan, like real subtle dismissal," Kitty said, flaring with anger. She stomped off.

"…" Logan was silent for a moment. "What's eatin' her?" he asked finally.

"Ah dunno. But whatever pills she's on, Ah hope she gets off 'em soon. She called me ten minutes ago and was screamin' bloody murder an' swearin' inta the phone. Ah wouldn't even expect _you _to do that!"

"I was close!" Logan growled. "What's goin' on with you, Stripes? Skipping school to hang out with the brotherhood, lyin' about where you go when you go out, an' now you're staying out all night? I thought we were over this two years ago, when you ditched the brotherhood fer good! What are you, reverting?"

Rogue just rolled her eyes and walked past Logan to go inside.

XxXxXxXxX

The following Tuesday found Rogue at the Dance Club. After she paid, she went into the bathroom and changed. She had left the institute wearing her favorite black skinnies and a long-sleeved gray shirt with her usual black gloves. Her heart raced as she changed into a knee-length black spaghetti strap dress, strappy heels, and slipped off her gloves. She put up the brown parts of her hair into a bun, and hid her clothes bag behind the sinks.

She stepped out of the bathroom in her new getup, with a giddy kind of feeling in her stomach.

_Mah powers are off! Ah can't believe Ah'm wearin' somethin like this without tights and a mesh over it! _

Rogue was pulled out of her musings by a tap on her shoulder. She grinned and turned around to face those black on red eyes and—

Hell-o, who's this?

"Hello, young lady." The man said. He was kind of short, dressed in a charcoal gray suit. He had mouse-brown hair that was receding a bit and dark blue eyes.

"Um… Hello?" Rogue replied.

"Is that tall guy with those eyes going to be here tonight?" He asked.

_WTF?_

"Er… yeah. He is. Why ya askin'?" Rogue stuttered. _Who is this guy?_

"Good! I would like to hire you both."

"…"

"Miss?" He looked a bit concerned at her silence.

"Oh. Why?" _Ah love how tactful Ah am._

"I own this club," he started. "You two are amazing dancers and you bring in a lot of business. I want to hire you to lead theme nights, and maybe even give lessons, if you're willing."

"And how do ya 'lead' a theme night?" she asked skeptically.

"You dress up in theme and dance."

"Just that?"

"Yep. When people see an attractive couple that can dance well, it makes them want to dance, too. And if the people want to dance, they'll have a good time, and tell their friends. Business will boom!"

"Ah think that sounds just fine," Rogue replied. What would be better than being _paid _to move her body with Remy's? And not like _that_, you sickos. "Ah will have to ask my dance partner, though.

"I t'ink it sounds bon, Cherie," a silky voice came from behind her. Rogue whirled around.

"Remy! Don't sneak up on meh like that! Give meh a heart attack!"

"Well, I did not want t' be rude an' interrupt Monsieur…?"

"My name's Phil DePastino," he told them.

"Ah, merci," Remy said as he tuned back to Rogue. "Monsieur DePastino, then."

"Just Phil."

Rogue grinned. "Well then, Just Phil, Ah guess ya got yerself two theme leaders."

"And instructors," Remy reminded her.

"Theme leaders/instructors," Phil chirped. "Great! If you two would just show up here next Friday, dressed up ballroom style, you can lead Ballroom Dancing Theme Night."

"Right. And tonight, Chere, we can storm de floor in freestyle," Remy purred as he pulled her to the middle of the dancefloor.

XxXxXxXxX

"Hey, Kitty?" Amara popped her head into Kitty's open doorway. "A bunch of us are watching the Lake House downstairs. Wanna watch?"

"Sure. I'll be right down.

Kitty had watched the movie with everybody else. At the end, where it lets on that Alex is the guy who died at the beginning, some of the girls aww-ed in sadness, and the rest just watched.

Except Kitty. She was sobbing into a couch pillow.

"Kitty?" Jean asked in concern. "Are you okay? You do know it's just a movie, right?"

*SOB* "Yeeeess!" Kitty wailed. "It's just—*sniffle*-They'll NEVER be togeth-together! All those-those letters, all th-that t-time he waited j-just for her, and n-n-now he's DEAD!" and she went on sobbing.

Jean and the other girls all looked at each other. Finally, they made the decision to go ahead and put Kitty to bed.

After they had helped the hysterical girl into her bedroom and under the sheets, they went to the kitchen for a late dessert.

"Why did she react like that?" Jubilee asked aloud to nobody in particular. Jean just shrugged and went on eating her ice cream.

XxXxXxXxX

At the end of the night, Rogue stepped out of the bathroom back in her street clothes. Gambit looked at her gloves and raised an eyebrow.

"Isn't September a bit too early to break out the snow clothes?"

"Ah haven't exactly told anyone at the institute yet," she replied sheepishly.

"Why not?"

"How am Ah supposed to?"

"I dunno. Walk around in shorts and a tank top."

"Ah don't even own either of those articles of clothing."

"So just tell them."

"Oh, and how do ya propose Ah do that? 'Hey Logan, ya know that guy that used to be our enemy, the one that kidnapped meh a while back? He taught me how ta control mah powers and now Ah've been sneakin' around with him behind ya back ta dance and fuck.' That'll go over real well."

"I'd probably leave out the fucking part. He don' need to know who ya do that with."

"Well, it ain't like he won't find out!" she sighed. "Jus' let meh think of a game plan." Remy eyed her for a minute.

"Fine," he sighed. "'S your family." She smiled and leaned up to plant a quick, chaste kiss on his lips. "Where y' goin'?"

"Why?" she asked. "Ya offerin' meh a place ta stay tonight?"

"Yep."

"Then ah guess Ah'm goin to the Acolyte base."

He grinned at her.

"Hey, guys," Phil came up behind them. "Here's your pay for the night," he said as he handed them each an envelope. "Remember, theme night is this Friday."

"We'll be there."

XxXxXxXxX

Wednesday at school, Rogue was sitting bored in math class when she overheard some students talking.

"Yeah, we should totally go to that place for theme night!" a girl chirped.

"Sounds fun, I've been wanting an excuse to wear that dress I splurged on," another girl said.

"Well, I really can't dance, but Brandon and Molly from the school across town were there last night and Molly said that there was this amazing couple dancing up a storm! Like, professionals!"

"Great, let's do it!"

Rogue just smirked and leaned back in her chair.

XxXxXxXxX

Kitty was sitting with the other Institute kids at lunch, when she realized Rogue wasn't there. She sometimes ate with them, but could usually be found eating alone under the trees. Kitty got up and dumped her tray to go look for her roommate.

"_Un film? Bien sûr. Quand il est_?" (A movie? Sure. When is it?) Kitty heard her roommate talk into the her cell phone in the bathroom. As she walked further into the facilities, she could hear her roommate giggle and then launch into fast French.

"Rogue?" Kitty asked when she caught sight of the girl. She was sitting on the sink counters. Rogue looked up at her and talked into the phone.

"_Un moment_." She held her hand over the receiver. "What, Kit?"

"Who do you know in France?"

Rogue rolled her eyes. "He ain't in France, kit. This is how ya get privacy in a non-private place. Do ya know how many vain girls come inta this bathroom at lunch to redo their makeup?"

"But… Who do you know that speaks French?" Kitty asked her.

"Nobody. Now go away." Rogue put the phone back up to her ear. "_Désolé, mon cher. Où étions-nous_?" (sorry, my dear, where were we?)

Kitty's temper flared and she grabbed the phone out of Rogue's hand without a word and put it up to her ear.

"_Et c'est pourquoi John n'est pas autorisé à être dans la section des produits_," could be heard on the other end. (And that's why John is not allowed to be in the produce section.)

"Who is this?" Kitty demanded.

"Kitty! Dammit!" Rogue yelled as she grabbed her phone back_. "Désolé, Remy, qui a été mon colocataire stupide_," Rogue grumbled as she left the bathroom. (Sorry, Remy, that was my stupid roommate.)

Now kitty was just confused. She had understood maybe three words of that conversation.

_And why does that voice, like, sound so familiar?_

XxXxXxXxX

On Friday, Rogue left the mansion just before dinner with a duffel bag slung over her shoulder. To her surprise, and happiness, nobody stopped her along the way or asked where she was going. In fact, she didn't even run into anyone.

_That's actually kind of weird, _she thought.

At the club, she knocked to be let in, as the door was locked. The DJ came and let her in.

"Why you here so early?" he asked. His blond dreadlocks were obscuring his eyes.

"Ah'm an efficient employee, ya could say." She was already slipping off her gloves.

"Where's Eyes?" the guy asked.

"Ah dunno, Hair."

"Heh, cool, I have a nickname!" Hair gave her a goofy smile.

"It was actually supposed to be an insult. Ah don't appreciate ya callin' mah boyfriend 'Eyes,'" she drawled.

"Heh heh, Hair," the guy laughed, seemingly not hearing what she said.

"Are you high?" Rogue asked him.

"Sshh! Don't say it so loud! I don't wanna have to share, man!" he pleaded.

Rogue gave him a skeptical look. "So you _are_, then."

"Yeah… Sshhh!"

"Oh, I see you've met Dizzy," Phil said.

"No! My name's Hair, now." Dizzy told him. "Or was I Eyes?"

Rogue was fighting the urge to facepalm. "Ya were Hair." She looked to Phil. "Is this guy unfortunate enough to have parents that hate him so much they named him Dizzy?" she asked.

"No, we call him Dizzy because he's always high," Phil said. "His real name is Izzy."

"Shhh!" Dizzy put his finger up to Phil's mouth. Phil swatted his arm away.

"And you're okay with him being like this?" Rogue asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I needed a DJ," Phil told her. "And the kid's got a way with music. As long as he doesn't die on one of my tables, I'm cool with him." Rogue shrugged and walked toward the bathroom to change.

When she walked out in a floor length green dress that had a black band tied at the waist, Remy was there in a black tux with a magenta shirt.

(AN/ find rogue's dress here: www .milanoo. com/Empire-Waist-Halter-Satin-Prom-Dress-p4996 .html just take out the spaces.)

"H'lo, Chere," he smiled.

As the people started piling in, he led her to the dance floor. The two southerners kept everybody entertained with the tango, the mambo, the rumba, the waltz, and the cha-cha.

It was the most fun Rogue had had in a long time.

XxXxXxXxX

AN/ Reviews are my blood, people! Remember that! And sorry this one was a bit late. I try to update on the weekends, but meh. And this one was a little better edited, lol.

-Zandra


	6. Fastest Working Karma Ever!

AN/ Yes, I do know how to respond to reviews separately. But I had a reviewer ask me if Kitty always freaked out during Rom Coms. Needless to say, I had no idea in hell what a rom com was. And then I used some sources (read: Google) and found out that meant Romance/Comedy movies.

Anyway, the answer is no, she doesn't usually. But like I thought I said in a previous AN, (I'm getting forgetful with old age? I know those pre-twenty years can be hard on a girl) Kitty feels guilty about stealing all that shiny crap. And while she's not realizing she is, she's subconsciously showing that by overreacting to everything. I'm done ranting now. If you want more rant, you must pay for another five minutes.

I'm done here.

XxXxXxXxX

It was Saturday. Rogue was in agony.

"Oooohh…" she moaned. "Aspirin!" she fell back against the pillows on Remy's bed.

"Hey, Chere. Drink dis," Remy handed her a glass of water and a couple of Tylenol. "If y' can, we'll try some toast later."

"What happened aftah th' martinis?" she gulped down some of the water. "'S all pretty much blank aftah that." She swallowed the Tylenol, too. "Before, too, actually. I remember leavin' the club with you… Then Nada."

"We left de club, stopped at de liquor store to get some crappy rum t' celebrate our first theme night, drank it when we got back here. Fo' some reason, Mags was feelin' generous, and he donated a couple bottles of wine, Johnny got out de four bottles o' tequila he had stashed in 'is room, I stole some o' Pete's Russian vodka, y'all mixed up some martinis in dere somewhere, and den y' and de Sabretooth finished off his beer between de two o' y'."

"Did we finish all that? Rum, wine, shitload of tequila, vodka, martinis, and beer?"

"Yep. Dere were five o' us drinkin, granted, but every drop o' alcohol dat was in dis base is _gone._"

"Wait, five of us were drinkin'? There's six o' us here."

"De Tin Man felt de need to be responsible. I guess it was more like four o' us drinkin' cuz Mags only had de one glass o' wine and went t' bed."

"Why ain't ya got a splittin' headache like ah do, then?"

"My metabolism, Chere."

"An Ah suppose Sabes ain't even a bit affected," she groused as he took back the glass.

"Non, only y' and Johnny."

"You two are bastards."

"Dat ain't nice, Chere."

"Ah never claimed ta be nice." Rogue's phone chose that moment to ring. "Ahh…" she grabbed her head. Remy leaned over and handed it to her so she wouldn't have to get up. She flipped it open, if only to get it to stop making that horrible sound.

"What?" she demanded.

"Get your ass back here, Stripes!" Logan yelled from the other end. Quite loudly.

"Ooowww…"

"Stripes!"

"What? No, Ah ain't comin' back till later. Deal with it." She flipped her phone shut without waiting for a response.

"Yo' pere's gonna be pissed when y' get back t' de mansion," Remy teased.

"He ain't mah father."

"Sure, Chere."

"Rise and shine!" Magneto said rather loudly as he came into the room and opened the curtains.

"Aaagh!" Rogue moaned as she put a pillow over her head to block out the light. "Sadistic bastard!"

"Well, that's what you get for underage drinking, my dear," Magneto informed her. "And, as long as you're here, you can help clean up the mess you all made in my sitting room."

"Good lord, have a heart, Lensherr!" she whined. His look seemed to soften a bit.

"Piotr made some tea and toast for you. It's downstairs. Nonetheless, when you are a bit less hung over, I do expect you to help with cleanup." With that, he left the room. She nodded at the retreating figure and threw off the covers to go downstairs.

"Heh, I t'ink Maggie got a soft spot fo' y' Chere."

She ignored him and tightened the drawstring on the pajama pants she borrowed from him some point during the night before.

"Are ya comin'?" she had one hand on the door. He followed her downstairs, and she gasped as she glanced at the living room. There were feathers and silly string everywhere for god knows what reason, and a couple of broken shot glasses scattered around the room. There were new singe marks on the walls, ceiling, and couch, John getting lighter-happy, she guessed. She blushed as she picked up her bra and stuffed it in the pocket of the hoodie she was wearing. John's hoodie…

"When did _that _get taken off?" she asked.

"After you started on de beers wit' Sabretooth, y' wanted t' prove t' Petey dat all girls can take deir bras off t'rough deir shirtsleeves. Y' did it wit'out showin' any nipple, as fucked up as y' were. I was fairly impressed."

"…Oh, lord…"

"My favorite part o' de evenin' had t' be when y' started singin, though."

"Lemmee guess, Gretchen Wilson?"

"How'd y' know, Chere?"

"All mah drinkin' songs are country. My most usual one is Gretchen Wilson. All Jacked Up."

"That we were an' that it was," John said as he came up behind her.

"Mornin' John. Question: Why'd ya have four bottles of tequila squirreled away?" Rogue asked.

"Aw, crap, we drank half my stash? Oi, mates, I was saving that!"

"You still got four bottles up there!" Rogue said. "Good lord, Johnny! What, ya have a booze apocalypse closet?"

"More like saving it for a rainy day," John corrected her.

"Yesterday weren't rainy, homme," Remy reminded.

"Thanks, Pete," Rogue smiled at the large Russian man as he set a mug of tea and a plate of toast in front of her when they all made it to the table.

"Oi… Mate, where's mine?" John asked as he gave Colossus puppy-dog eyes.

"The tea bags are in the drawer. The kettle's on the skillet, water is in spout, bread and toaster are on counter," Piotr said.

"Y' coulda jus' told him t' get his own, Petey." Remy smirked.

"But ya made some for the Sheila!"

"She did not get an underage girl drunk, comrade."

"So what, ya blame me?" The Aussie pouted.

"Partially, but mostly I blame Gambit." With that, the muscular man settled a stony glare on Remy.

"What?" Remy faked outrage. "I did nothin' o' the sort!" he turned to John. "Johnny boy, did y' see me hand mon Chere anyt'ing t' drink las night and order her t' get drunk?"

"Well, no, mate. But that's prob'ly cuz I don't remember much of anyth—"

"See? Pete, it ain't my fault." Remy eyed Rogue suspiciously. "In fact, I t'ink she was sneakin' shots when none o' us was lookin'." He got a devious look in his eye. "We should punish her. Roguey, y' grounded. Y' ain't t' leave dis base. And y' ain't allowed t' wear clothes, neither… So go back up t' de room." He smirked at her. She rolled her eyes, but smiled.

"If you are done being crude, Gambit, will you kindly tell me what the hell you were thinking?" Colossus seemed to actually be pretty ticked off.

Rogue started laughing.

"May I ask what is so funny, Rogue?" Colossus asked. "Because I really don't think it is. Need I remind you of your part in all this?"

She laughed harder.

They all stared at her for a minute. "Well, if _that _didn't just prove that ya belong in the X-Men, Pete, Ah don't know what would," she informed them. "Ah mean, all ya'd need is the glasses and ya would _be_ Scott. This is usually the part where Ah make some snarky remark to Scott, but… Ah think Ah'd rather laugh."

Colossus muttered something in Russian and walked out of the kitchen. Rogue started holding her head.

"Oww… Laughing hurts… Fastest-acting karma ever!"

After a bit, her Tylenol took effect. The coffee Remy Handed her helped, too. She looked forlornly into the living room. She hated cleaning.

"Well… Ah s'pose we should get on with it. Where's the vacuum?" She asked Remy.

"Dat closet over dere," he said, pointing.

Rogue walked over to the closet and opened the door. She expected a vacuum, coats, and other things normally stored in a hall closet. She got four boxes of cereal to her aching head.

"Ooow!" she complained. She looked back up to the top shelf in the closet and reached out to pick up one of the thirty boxes of Lucky Charms there. "What the hell?"

"NO! SHEILA!" John shrieked as he flew over to her. He ripped the box out of her hand, threw it back in the closet, slammed the door shut and started leading her away from the closet.

"Ya never, NEVER, touch Creed's Lucky Charms, Sheila! Trust me, I learned that as soon as I got here. That day, he promised that the next person ta EVER touch his Lucky Charms gets disemboweled. So don't touch them, Sheila!" he beseeched her. "If ya died then I wouldn't have anybody to watch Johnny Test with."

"We only watched it a couple a times, Johnny," she reminded him.

"Yeah, but when you're not here and I put the DVD in, Sabretooth throws things at my head, mate! It's cruel!"

"Well, whatever. Ah won't touch the cereal, Ah promise, John. But Ah gotta get the vacuum cleaner outta the closet. So let go of my arms."

He complied and Remy, John, and Rogue started cleaning up the remains of an epic drinking party.

XxXxXxXxX

"Hey, Kitty?" Kurt popped his head into her partially open door. "I nee to borrow… Vhat are you doing?"

Kitty currently had the first par of her face through the wall, along with her hands. She had been arranger her shiny stash of stolen things to be more pleasing to the eye. Kurt, however, did not know this. Since Kitty's ears had been partially in the room, she heard him and yanked her head out of the wall.

"NOTHING! I-I-I Just… Um I phased my bracelet through the wall when I was sleeping! Yeah, yeah. I was just…"

"Looking for it?" Kurt asked skeptically.

"Yeah!"

"Right. Anyway I need to borrow your chemistry notes from Thursday."

"Ok, sure."

_Gosh, that was close! _

"Hey, vait a minute! Isn't that Tabitha's necklace that she vas telling everyone she lost?" Kurt was eyeing said necklace. Kitty had stolen I a few days before and was putting it next to her shiny Claire's headband when Kurt startled her. "Vhy do you have it?"

"Um, I like, found it in here. She must have left it when she was in with the rest of us girls here. I was just going to return it to her."

"But… I thought you were just phasing through the vall to find your bracelet, ja?"

"I am pretty easily sidetracked, you know me!" Kitty laughed nervously as she handed Kurt the chemistry notes.

"Ja, you kind of are lately. I can give it to her, she's downstairs in the library vith a bunch of us studying."

"Tabitha… Studying?"

"Ja. It happens, apparently."

"Huh."

XxXxXxXxX

Rogue walked through the institute gates at about nine in the morning with some trepidation.

The good news is, Ah can touch people now, Ah have a totally smokin' boyfriend, and Ah have a job that consists of dancing with said smokin' hot boyfriend. The bad news—Logan will chop meh up into itty-bitty pieces while I sleep. Pleasant.

She walked into the institute and made her way up the main staircase, turning a left into the student's dorm. She was one hallway away from the room she shared with kitty, and thought she would be home free for a couple hours until lunch.

Wrong.

"Stripes!" Logan said from behind her.

_Maybe he'll go away if Ah ignore him, _she thought. _It works with dogs. _

"Stripes, answer me!" Logan gently shouted right near her ear.

"Ooww…"

"You. Professor's office. Now!" He growled.

"Good mornin' tah ya too, Logan," she griped. Please note that this lapse of utter stupidity was hangover-induced.

She walked into her room. She was only going to put down her bag and then head to the Professor's office, but apparently Logan thought she was ignoring his order.

Which is what explained the fact that Rogue was now over Logan's shoulder as he hauled her ass to the Professor's office. Usually she would have pounded her fists against his chest, kicked wildly, ordered him to put her down, or otherwise express her displeasure at this undignified position. But today, her head hurt too much, so she figured she didn't have to walk if there was someone willing to carry her.

They entered the Professor's office and Logan unceremoniously dumped her in the chair in front of his desk.

Needless to say, this kind of jostling movement set her head throbbing.

"Ow," she whimpered.

"Was that really necessary, Logan?" Rogue heard storm sigh. "You didn't need to hurt the girl."

"It ain't me that hurt her, Ro. She's hungover." He growled down at Rogue.

"Hey, ya shouldn't just go accusing people lahke that!" Rogue protested. "What if it _was _ya that hurt me? Ya did kinda just dump meh here. And this chair does not exactly have soft arms, ya know!"

"_Was _it me dropping you that made yer head hurt?"

She shook her head no.

"_Are _you hungover?"

"Yeah," she grumbled.

"Case in point, Ro." He turned back to Rogue. "Now, I was able to kind of, maybe, just barely, tolerate not knowing where ya were before. Ya weren't getting hurt and ya actually seemed a bit happier the past weeks. But now yer comin' home smellin' like a brewery. And if I'm not mistaken, I smell magneto lackeys on you too!"

"Yes, Rogue, and it really is imperative that at least _someone _know where you are, for safety reasons." The professor said in a concerned tone. "And is it true that you have been around Magneto or his Acolytes? Are they trying to get you to join them?"

"No, Prof. Ah ain't even really talked ta them, they happened to be at the same club Ah was last night," she lied.

"Okay then, tell us who you were with so I can make 'em eat adamantium fer gettin' you drunk!" Logan ordered her.

"What if it was meh that got that liquor? Huh, Logan? It ain't like Ah didn't get a fake ID when I was fourteen just like the rest of mah crowd when Ah was that age," she challenged him.

"You got a fake ID when you were _fourteen_?" Storm broke in.

"Well, Storm, if ya think all the crap Ah've pulled over the past two and a half years was bad, ya should talk to mah aunt Irene. I really do feel bad for the poor old woman but… Really, what was Mama thinkin' leaving a delinquent like me with a blind lady? Y'all should thank the heavens that Ah've calmed down so much. "

"Back to the point, Stripes, I knew you had a fake ID, you've flashed it at bars with me before. But that says you're nineteen, not twenty-one."

"Logan, you've taken her to bars? And you want to mutilate the person that got her drunk last night?" Storm looked skeptical.

"Hey, it ain't like I ever let her drink when I was with her!"

"Not even one damn beer," Rogue agreed under her breath. Logan heard it though.

"Well, I think this proves that I was right in doing so!" Logan snapped.

"Ah can hold my liquor, dammit, Logan!"

"Then why do you have such a shitty hangover?" he snarled. At this point Storm and the Professor were pretty much just watching those two argue.

"Because even Ah can't handle polishing off four bottles of tequila, a couple beers, a few bottles of rum, Russian vodka, martinis, and several bottles of wine with only two drinking partners!" she snapped back at him.

"Why the hell was there so much alcohol there anyway?"

"Everyone has a vice, sugah." At this point of arguing, Logan was tying to hold himself back from doing something rash. For his own sanity, and Rogue's butt's safety, he stormed out of the Professor's office growling about the danger room.

"Always with the dramatic exits with him," Rogue huffed.

"Are you aware, Rogue, that he is just worried about you?" Storm asked gently.

"Well, he could be less, ah dunno, _angry _about it. The whole reason Ah'm not tellin' y'all who Ah've been with is 'cuz Ah don't want Mr. Short, Hairy, and Rage-ful to go murder them all."

Rogue took a deep breath.

"Ah really don't like deceivin' you guys so much. So, if ya promise nit ta ask the how's or when's or why's, Ah can tell ya somethin' that Ah, personally think is utterly awesome." The Professor and Storm both nodded their acquiescence. "Ah got control of mah powers," she rushed the words out of her mouth.

"Oh… Rogue!" Storm was on her in an instant, with an unexpected hug. The girl returned the embrace.

"Congratulations, Rogue," the Professor said with a warm smile. She grinned back at him.

"Thank ya, Professor."

XxXxXxXxX

Rogue used Jean's powers to locate Kitty in the mansion. She dropped her gloves off in the room they shared, and, clasping her hands behind her back, headed toward the brunette.

She finally passed Kitty in the hall.

"Hey, Kit? Guess what."

"What?" Kitty asked, stopping where she was. Rogue pulled her uncovered hands from behind her back when she was right next to Kitty, and took her friends face in her hands.

"Ah got control." And she kept on walking the direction she had been, leaving her roommate dumbfounded standing in the hallway. It wasn't until she turned the corner she heard Kitty squeal.

_Heh. Fastest way around to get the news out besides holdin' a big meeting. Ah guess Ah can be subtle, after all. _

TBC…

AN/ Remember people! Reviews are my blood… Sustenance, yes… So please do me a favor and press that button to drop me a line! The least you can do, since I gave you another chapter four days early. :3

-Zandra


	7. My Mouth is the Size of Texas

AN/ Edit: I had to re-upload the chapter because the pinty brackets weren't showing up. Sorry if you got a bunch of emails. Okay, I am lazy. So I don't wan to translate the entire French conversation. With that, whenever you see dialogue you see in square brackets: "[text here]" is in French. On with the show!

-Zandra.

Dancing Shoes? Chapter 7: My Mouth is the Size of Texas

Rogue was in her bedroom reading when she heard far too many shrill squeals for her liking. She heaved a sigh and had the foresight to mark her place in her book before a horde of teenage girls burst into the room she shared with Kitty. Three of the said teenage girls latched onto her arms and yanked her from her spot at the window seat. _Yep. Definitely gonna be happy for that bookmark later, _she though as her book fell to the ground.

"We've made a decision," Kitty announced to her less-than-enthused roommate. "We're taking you shopping!"

"Oh, now, are you?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yep!" Kitty replied cheerily as Rogue was allowing Amara, Rahne and Jubilee to drag her out of the room. "And then we're going to cut up all your gloves, and then you and me are going to go trolling for boys!"

"Ah already have plans for mah gloves, Kit."

"Hey, guys!" Jean greeted as she came down the hallway toward the gaggle of girls. "The professor thought it was a great idea. We now have a credit card."

"What great idea are ya talkin' about?" Rogue asked skeptically.

"Getting you a whole new wardrobe, of course! Duh," Kitty told her. Rogue made a face.

"What's wrong with mah old clothes?"

"Um, it's almost summer and all your stuff is long sleeved," Amara said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Ah do have those black tank tops Ah usually put mesh over."

"Black? In summer?" Kitty asked her as they were herding her to the garage.

"Hey! There ain't anythin' wrong with black, it just so happens ta be one of mah favorite colors!" Rogue protested. "Just 'cuz ah can show more skin, don't mean Ah'm gonna go changin' mah whole style because o' it!"

"Fine, but you have to get at least some bright colored things!"

"Sure, Kit. But Ah ain't getting' any pink, or baby blue, or yellow, or any o' that crap."

"But you would look so cute in a blue miniskirt and yellow top!" Kitty whined.

"No."

They were all now in Jean's SUV. That is, Kitty, Jubilee, Rahne, Amara, Tabitha, Jean of course, and even Storm.

"How'd they drag you inta all o' this?" Rogue asked Storm.

"Jean wanted some company along that would not, how did she put it? Oh, yes. 'Gush over every cute butt they saw.'" Storm smirked.

"Yeah, Ah could see that," Rogue snorted. The conversation seemed only to be vindicated by a high pitched voice, "Oh my gosh! Look at that guy… He's so cute!" and "Wow, look at his butt!" as they pulled up to the mall.

XxXxXxXxX

Remy LeBeau was not having a good day. In fact, he was highly irritated.

"John!" he shouted as he yanked the pyromaniac back by the collar. "I told y' t' stay out of the smoke shop! We ain't here to get ya another lighter, we're here to replace the stuff you damaged with your others!" Remy then proceeded to drag John to the food court in hopes that he could find some treat to distract the Australian mutant. Really, the man was worse than a little kid. Remy really didn't know why he put up with him.

He was not having a good day. That is, until he had pacified John with an order of spicy Asian noodles. And until he heard a familiar lilting southern accent.

"Come on, guys! Didn't we get enough stuff already? Ah'm tired and Ah wanna go home and finish Mah book."

"Like, no way, Rogue! You still need a swimsuit!" Remy heard his femme's best friend squeal.

He turned to John. "Stay here. As in right at this table, ya hear?" John nodded.

Remy headed off to he part of the food court he heard them from. He smirked. They had obviously been here a while, and his Chere looked tired. So did the redhead and…

"Stormy!" he greeted. "Y' don' call, y' don' write—"

"You don't leave a forwarding address," she quipped. Most of the girls looked baffled at this exchange, but Rogue had both Ororo and Remy in her head. After Storm had left Africa, but before the Professor recruited her, she had been a thief of the New Orleans thieves guild. She had actually been quite close to the LeBeau family, and Rogue knew that it had left a mark on all of them when Storm had simply abandoned them. Remy was a forgiving person, though, and it seemed like everything was right as rain with them.

"Y' still know how t' crack a safe, Stormy?"

"I imagine I'm a bit Rusty, but yes, I do. And don't call me that."

"Sure, Stormy." He grinned at her.

"Storm, like, how do you know Gambit?" Kitty asked what the were all thinking. Well, no, Kitty was the only one thinking that actually. The rest of the girls were thinking how sexy Gambit was outside of battle.

"Oh, we go way back," Remy answered for her.

"Here on business, Remy?" Storm asked. Gambit scowled at that as he thought back to his previously crappy day. "Non, de fire bug decided t' remodel de sittin' room an' kitchen back at de base. Wit' his mutation. Needless t' say, dere are t'ings dat need replacin'."

Rogue choked back a laugh at that—she could just see John, wielding his favorite Zippo (Penelope) and standing in the middle of their living room, making fire people and talking to them as he controlled them to walk up the walls and do the hokey-pokey.

At this point, all the other girls had been distracted by something in one of the shops and had left Storm and Rogue standing with Remy. Storm had noticed the barely concealed laugh, and was about to say something, when across the food court rang—

"SHEILA!"

The three then turned their attention toward the tables in the food court. Pyro had one of the tables in his arms and was hauling it over to the three, oblivious to the fact that he was being stared at.

"John!" Remy sighed in exasperation at his borderline-psychotic friend. "I thought I told y' t' stay over there!" Remy pointed to the spot where the table had been.

"No, ya didn't, mate. Ya told me ta stay at this 'ere table," John said as he pointed to said table.

Remy rubbed his hands over his face and muttered something in French that sounded suspiciously like 'this man will be the death of me' to Rogue. Rogue snickered.

"Realleh, Johnny. Do ya even _try_ to use common sense?"

"Not if I can avoid it, sheila." Storm raised an eyebrow at their familiarity. "Hey, you're one o' the other X-Sheilas…" John got wide-eyed, picked up his table (over his head, I might add) and ran away. Remy looked at him for a long moment. The other girls came back. In lieu of them returning, Rogue thought it best to end the conversation privately.

"[So, I'll see you theme night? And this time, I'll bring PJ's.]" she said to Remy. "[Oh, and you should probably get a lock for you bedroom door. Don't want Mags walking in again… I was clothed last time, but I'm not usually. Don't wanna do that to the poor guy… What are you looking at like that…?]" Rogue turned to follow his gaze to Storm's mildly shocked one. The rest of the girls weren't registering the same look, they knew Rogue knew French… Well, Kitty had an odd look on her face, but when did she not if she was in Rogue's presence?

"[Uh… Chere, yo' do know how I'm connected t' Stormy?]" he asked her when she finally looked back at him.

"Yeah. Why?"

"[T'ink o' where she lived, Chere, who she lived _with_.]"

Rogue registered this information with an almost audible click in her mind.

"Oh…" she looked back at Storm sheepishly. "Parlez-vous français?" Storm nodded her head and Rogue got a frightened glint in her eyes. How could she be so _stupid_? It wasn't like her and Remy were the only people in the world who knew the language. Within five sentences she had just put everything she had with the man she loved on the line… By opening her big mouth.

"[It is none of my business," Storm said. "As long as you're not leaking important information to him, I see nothing wrong with it. Oh, and Remy," she turned to him. "Hurt her and I _will _come after you to shoot thousands of volts of electricity through your body.]"

Remy just smirked at Storm. He turned to everyone else.

"And with that I shall leave y' t' yo' shopping, _mademoiselles_," He bowed and walked off after Pyro.

XxXxXxXxX

**AN/ Sorry this was late, guys, but whatta ya gonna do? **

**PLEASE please please review. They make me write faster, and the last chapter hardly got any at all **

**-Zandra**


	8. This is the chapter the fic is named for

**Dancing Shoes? Chapter 8**: **This is the Chapter the Fic Was Named For.**

"Hey, Kitty?" Jean asked when they all got back from the mall. "I want to talk to you."

"Um! Yeah! Sure, why not!" Kitty eeped. Jean looked at her a bit funny. The two girls walked to a quieter place.

"Are you alright, Kitty?" Jean asked the tiny girl. "Your emotional reactions to things have been off the charts lately," she explained with concern.

"Oh, uh yeah. Totally fine. Maybe a bit stressed, school winding down and everything," she babbled. Jean didn't look convinced, but she knew she wouldn't get anything more out of her.

"Alright then. If you're sure."

Kitty nodded and gave a fake smile before phasing through the floor.

XxXxXxXxX

At about four o' clock that day, the door rang. Logan was in the foyer, so he went to get it. Rogue was expecting it, so she came down the stairs as Logan was signing for the delivery. The package guy was leaving just as Rogue reached Logan.

"Apparently it's for you, Stripes," he said. He glanced back up at her and then down at the package again with a confused face. "Dancing shoes?" he asked, baffled. The look on his face was so priceless that Rogue dropped the box as he handed it to her, and she started laughing.

"Grr." He growled.

"Oh, don't get ya panties in a knot, Logan," she grinned at him as she retrieved her box with a grin. He just glared as she walked back up the stairs.

Up in her room, Rogue got out her cell as she opened up the box. She dialed the number she already knew by heart.

"Bonjour," the other line picked up.

"Hey, Rem."

"Ah, ma cherie! How are y' doin' on dis lovely day?"

"Ah'm doin' great. Hey, listen. My shoes just got here. Ah think we can start a class or two up soon. Now we just need a lesson plan."

"Sounds great. How 'bout you head on over to dat little café on Central Street. We plan dere, non?"

"Great. See you in… Thirty minutes?"

"Bon."

XxXxXxXxX

Rahne was nervous. She was really nervous. She had decided that it had been long enough to let the steam blow over from Apocalypse, and now she was going to ask 'Aunt' Moira if she could return to the Xavier institute. She had loved living there, she had had so many friends. It would be lovely if she could go back. She was able to be in her lupine form so much more often there, and she loved it. She didn't like to be in it too much while she was in Scotland. She knew she worried Aunt Moira when she stayed a wolf too long. She also loved how confident she felt when she was at Xavier's… Teasing the other students and flirting lightly with the boys at school…

Rahne just _knew_ if she pulled the right puppy-dog eyes, (no pun intended) Aunt Moira wouldn't be _able_ to say no. At least, she hoped she wouldn't say no.

As Rahne walked slowly into Moira MacTaggert's main lab, she called out softly, "Aunt Moira?"

XxXxXxXxX

Jubilation Lee put the phone down, feeling as if her grin would split her face wide open. She walked into the rec. room.

"Woah, girl. You look like you're about to _explode,_" Tabitha commented. (Well, Tabitha would know about things that explode. No, not like _that_, you sickos! Her powers! Yeesh. You all have the dirtiest minds.)

"RAHNEISCOMINGBACK!" Jubilee squealed at inhuman decibels.

"Well, that ear-shattering tone was absolutely wonderful, but do you think you could repeat that so it's more understandable?" Jean asked with a smirk.

"Rahne! Is! Coming! BACK!" she shouted.

"All RIGHT!" Tabitha shouted. "We can finally fix her and 'Berto up!" Jubilee pulled a face at her.

"That's not the _only _reason you're excited, is it?"

"Well, no, not the only one. But what can I say. Romantic soul and all that," Tabitha shrugged.

"Ya ain't romance driven," Rogue commented as she heard the tail end of the conversation. "You're sex driven."

"Can't deny the facts," Tabby said. Jean pulled a face.

"Really Tabitha. Rogue. Not appropriate."

"Hey!" Kitty said as she looked up at rogue from her magazine. "You look nice. Why?" (And that is where everyone finds out about Kitty's lack of tact.)

"Rude much?" Rogue asked. Kitty shrugged.

"Sorry."

"Whatever Kit. If ya must know, Ah'm goin' out for a bit." That was the point when Kitty realized Rogue had her trusty duffel bag slung over her shoulder.

"Aww! You're leaving for the whole night again, aren't you!" Kitty complained.

"You've been staying out nights?" Tabitha asked. Note that most of the mansion sans instructors and Kitty, being the roommate, hadn't noticed Rogue's random absences.

"Ah feel loved. Nice ta know y'all missed meh," she drawled.

"Well, what?" Tabitha protested. "It's not like you socialize with any of us all that often. Are we supposed to notice when you disappear for a night? No. You're just in your room reading."

"Or so we thought," Kitty said conspiratorially.

"Ha. Ha. Y'all are just so wonderfully funny Ah forgot ta laugh." Rogue looked around the room one last time. "Well, bye."

"Hey! Wait!" Jubilee stopped her. "you haven't told us where you're going!"

"Nope," Rogue smirked. "And Ah ain't plannin' ta."

XxXxXxXxX

Remy jiggled his leg up and down under the table as he waited for Rogue. The café was pretty much empty with an exception of the staff. There were some very pretty waitresses there who had been sending coy smiles his way the whole time he had been waiting for Rogue.

It was amazing to him how he didn't pay any mind whatsoever to those waitresses. Actually, for the time he had been dating Rogue (since that day at the base when she got control for the first time) he hadn't really acknowledged _any _other women. This was, needless to say, exceedingly odd for him. He smirked to himself as he thought of all the ways Rogue could be all the woman he ever needed… And proceeded to scare himself shitless. Remy LeBeau… _committing? _

He didn't know how he felt about that. With the semi-exception of Belladonna, he had never been a one-woman-man. While he detested the idea of letting Rogue go for any reason… This was uncharted territory for him.

And yet, all his doubts vanished as soon as she walked into the café, smiling over at him.

_Yeah… I can do this. I can definitely do this, _he thought as they sat down to talk about their lesson plan.

**AN/ hey guys, sorry about the short update and the long time in between. I just got back from a long trip up north, and before that I was focusing more on I'll Keep You Close to My Heart. I just love little Accident Prone Xandy… ^_^ anyway, I'm back and I'll be updating all my stories that I can. **

REVIEW!

**-Zandra :3**


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